When shots are fired: Community teams reaching out in Salinas

Before word of a fatal shooting filters from Salinas police scanners to news Web sites, Bob Reyes knows he's going to get a call.

After police brief Reyes and a pair of colleagues, he'll send one of three rotating "Community Outreach Teams" to perform the most dreaded and honorable of tasks: knocking on the door of a victim's family to offer help.

Last month, during one of the deadliest shooting sprees in Salinas history, these mostly volunteer teams of five or six were dispatched to help families deal with the jumble of emotions left when gang violence strikes.

"It's what is pretty much the worst moment in their lives," says Reyes, who heads the project for the city. "You don't expect to lose someone under the age of 25. If you lost a loved one, wouldn't you like someone to be there and help get you through this crisis?"

Although keeping a lid on talk of retaliation isn't the group's primary focus, it sometimes comes with the territory, Reyes says.

"Two weeks ago, we got pretty much put to the test with five (homicide calls) in a little over a week. We're learning lessons as we go."

The teams, made up of clergy members and gang outreach counselors, were supposed to start work in June, says Reyes, who also runs Silver Star Resource Center for the county's probation department. But with a flurry of fatal gang shootings early in the year, the group had to jump into action months before their first training session. Since spring, they've responded to 12 murders as gang battles have again gripped the city.

In addition to their role as grief counselors, soon Reyes and his teams will likely become partners in Salinas' version of Ceasefire, helping to fill the crucial roles of outreach workers, counselors and, sometimes, violence interrupters.